Breakfast cereals in ready-to-eat (“RTE”) flake form have been produced for years. These cereal flakes typically contain cereal grains such as wheat, rice, oats, corn, etc. and ancillary ingredients such as sugars, salts, oils, etc. Flavoring, coloring and preservative agents and vitamins and mineral fortifiers are also typically included.
Conventionally, RTE cereal flakes have been prepared by toasting wet cereal flakes. The toasting process causes a slight expansion of the flakes and, in some instances, a curling of the flakes. Curled flakes are aesthetically pleasing to the consumer—flat flakes appearing too processed and unnatural. Thus, from a consumer preference standpoint, it is desirable to produce curled flakes and/or also to increase the amount of curling of each individual flake.
Another concern with flat flakes is that they have a relatively high bulk density. Bulk density is a function of the absolute density of the cereal and its packing factor. The packing factor is influenced by the size and shape of the cereal pieces—the lower the packing factor the more air space is present between the cereal pieces. Curled flakes, relative to flat flakes, decrease the packing factor and desirably decrease the bulk density of the cereal product.
One way to form RTE cereal flakes it so introduce the cereal ingredients, in the form of whole grains or grits (large grain pieces), into a batch cooker, cook the mix, dry and temper, and then roll the cooked grain pieces into flakes with flaking rolls After rolling, the flakes are immediately dried to prevent clumping.
It is also known to form RTE cereals flakes by a process which utilizes an extrusion step to form pellets (U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2001/0051198 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,788). The cereal ingredients may be batch mixed and fed into an extruder. In the extruder, the ingredients are formed into a cooked dough and then extruded into strands or ropes. These strands are cut into pellets, which are subsequently dried, flaked (for example, with a flaking roller) and toasted according to traditional methods. The post-extrusion processes, including pelletizing, intermediate drying, flaking and toasting, may provide the flakes with a generally curled configuration. However, each of these known post-extrusion processes requires additional equipment and equipment operators, additional floor space and additional energy.
It would be desirable to form RTE cereal flakes having a curl without the use of a flaking roll and/or without the use of an intermediate drying step. A need exists to reduce the number of processing steps, yet still produce a ready-to-eat cereal flake that is aesthetically appealing and that has a pleasing texture.